All About Rain and The Water Cycle

Hi, friends! You’ll never believe that we are still getting snow over here…. in April! I know! Crazy, right?! I’m dying for some springtime weather, but that isn’t keeping my kiddos from learning all about rain and the water cycle! We just love this water cycle experiment for little learners!

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When we begin our rain unit, I always like to discuss the water cycle with the kiddos. First, we read the story Splish! Splash! by Josepha Sherman.

WATER CYCLE ANCHOR CHART

WATER CYCLE EXPERIMENT

To complete the water cycle experiment, I gathered the necessary supplies. You might also want another container for the hot water.

First, I heated up some water on the stove. If you don’t have access to a stove at school, you could always heat the water on an electric burner or in the microwave. As the water was heating, we discussed how the stove represented the sun and how the water represented the lake, ocean, river, etc. Once the water was boiling, we could see steam. We discussed how the warm stove (i.e. sun) was causing the water to evaporate.

Next, we dumped the ice into a large, circular container. I chose to use a metal cake pan, but you could also use a large plate or even pie dish. The ice represents the clouds, or cold air way up in the sky.

Then, we placed the cold clouds on top of the evaporating water.

We waited for the evaporated water to begin to cool back down and condense, causing droplets to form.

If we watched closely, we could see the evaporated water traveling up to the sky and condensing. As the drops became larger, they fell down as precipitation, or rain.

This experiment can also be completed using a jar of hot water. Simply heat the water, either on the stove or in the microwave; but make sure your glass jar is warm enough to withstand the hot water if you are pouring it into the jar. Place the tray of ice on top of the jar and wait for the evaporated water to condense on the bottom of the tray.

WATER CYCLE ACTIVITIES

Once we finished our experiment, we labeled the steps in the water cycle.

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I'm Ashley, a Kindergarten teacher who loves live music, Mt. Dew (no coffee for me), and the color yellow. I believe learning should be developmentally appropriate, engaging, rigorous, but most importantly FUN... so welcome to my blog where content, creativity and rigor collide!